This invention relates generally to a splash shield for use by surgeons during high-fluid surgical procedures and more particularly to a cystoscopy splash shield designed to accommodate an eyepiece of an endoscope or any other similar optical-medical device.
The prior art has concentrated on protecting sterile, prepared areas of the patient from contamination by non-sterile areas (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,414,968 (Amin); 4,462,396 (Wickman); 4,378,794 (Collins); 4,489,720 (Morris, et al.); 4,890,628 (Jackson); 4,974,604 (Morris)). But efforts to protect the physician from contaminated body fluids have been unsatisfactory. Such protection is desirable because the fluids may contain disease-causing agents such as the HIV virus.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,834,068, for example, Gottesman discloses a disc-shaped, rigid plastic splash shield that attaches to the eyepiece of an endoscope or similar instrument, providing some protection for the physician's face. Splashing blood or irrigation fluid simply rebounds from the rear face of the splash shield and drips onto the floor, or runs down the surface of a conventional surgical drape, or off of the physician's clothing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,322 (Dash, et al.) discloses a similar rigid face shield, which is rectangular and curved slightly to wrap around the physician's face. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,481 (Ruth-Larson, et al.) discloses a protective gown with a broad skirt and fluid-impermeable areas that can be worn by the physician for protection during high-fluid procedures.
Aside from these prior art devices, the only protection afforded the physician by prior art devices consists of channelling blood and irrigation fluids, and sometimes feces, into disposal bags, or into a trough and drain arrangement sometimes provided on operating tables used for procedures such as cystoscopies (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,794 (Collins)). U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,710 (Jessamine, et al.) discloses such a device that channels or irrigates the bodily fluids away from the physician. Jessamine et al. describes a fluid protection drape arrangement suitable for attachment to the elevated legs and feet of a patient who has been placed in the lithotomy position on his or her back in the stirrups used for gynecological or proctological procedures.
A surgical drape providing a lesser degree of protection is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,769 (Lockhart). That patent discloses a multi-section drape suitable for use on patients in the lithotomy position. Lockhart's drape comprises a hammock-shaped member 8 attached at one end to the drape covering the patient at the position near the patient's buttocks, and at the other end to the physician's chest by means of elastic strips 40. One or more fenestrations (34, 36) are provided in the distal end of the hammock-shaped member, allowing access to the patient's genitals. Blood and irrigation fluid run out the holes and down the hammock-shaped member, to a drain 38 at its bottom. The physician's hands and face remain exposed to the blood and irrigation fluid running down the hammock-shaped member.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,882 (Lawrence) discloses a clear plastic bag intended to protect a physician conducting an autopsy from body fluids, blood, and bone fragments dispersed in the air by an oscillating bone saw. It would be unsuitable for use on live patients.
In short, the prior art intended for use with live patients teaches only the masks disclosed in Gottesman, which offer only limited protection to the physician's face; and the complex drapes described by Jessamine and Lockhart, which are usable only for procedures in which the patient is placed in the lithotomy position, and which allow only partially-protected access to the patient, and then only from a position directly behind the patient's buttocks. My invention is directed to overcoming the aforementioned limitations and problems in prior art devices.